As can be seen by reference to the following U.S. Pat. Nos.: 2,896,239; 4,303,348; 4,304,498; and 3,041,655 the prior art is replete with myriad and diverse gutter cleaners which are adapted to clean gutters from the ground without the use of a ladder.
While the prior art constructions are more than adequate for the basic purpose and function for which they were specifically designed, they do suffer from a number of shared deficiencies.
For instance, most of the prior art constructions lack the ability to travel the full length of the gutter without coming to a halt due to the presence of a gutter nail or some other obstacle within the gutter channel. Once the user encounters such an obstruction the user must manually lift the device over the obstruction to continue the cleaning process. This particular design deficiency creates an inefficient and cumbersome way to clean gutters.
In addition, another common shortcoming in the prior art construction is that the user has to hold the gutter cleaning device in place and exert effort to move the device along the gutter. This drawback makes the task of cleaning a gutter a tiresome chore.
Furthermore, most of the prior art constructions do not provide the feature of being able to rotate the nozzle 180.degree. for different directional use. This shortcoming makes cleaning the gutter much more difficult than necessary and if the nozzle cannot be turned directly downward it is virtually impossible to clean a downspout.
Furthermore, none of the prior art devices incorporate readily visible indicia on the nozzle element to allow the user on the ground to know the exact angle of orientation of the nozzle outlet relative to the gutter as the device traverses the length of the gutter.
Obviously there has existed a long standing need for a gutter cleaning device which addresses all of the above stated deficiencies of the prior art constructions; and, the development of such a device is the stated purpose and objective of the present invention.
In addition, in as much as insurance statistics indicate that the most frequent accidents which occur around the home while employing a ladder involve the act of cleaning a gutter, the subject matter of this invention should go a long way towards reducing that unfortunate statistic, since a ladder is not required with this invention.